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Tools for historians

Reference sources

Cambridge Histories Online: Access to over 300 volumes of the Cambridge Histories series. Volumes are grouped into historical subject areas including British and American history, Music, Philosophy, History of the Book, Political and Social Theory, Religious Studies and Warfare.

Oxford Reference Online Premium: Contains dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. It is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of these reference books. A broad subject range of titles from the Oxford Companions Series is available.

Writing guides

The Craft of Research: Chapter three on how to formulate a research topic (ie. turn an interest into a problem/question) is especially helpful.

Learning to do Historical Research: An online primer by William Cronon, the dean of US environmental historians and former president of the American Historical Association.

Information by field

Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. They are created by witnesses or recorders who experienced the events or conditions being documented. These sources are often created at the time when the events or conditions are happening, but they can also include autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories recorded later. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in original format like manuscripts, letters, or diaries, in microfilm/microfiche, in digital format, or in published format.